island school

It’s the final few days before the ‘big kids’ get here , and the last few days of homeschool. Almost out of time to get ready for Christmas!

I brought the kids to the Senior’s home, ‘The Pines’, for a ‘Kids with Heart’ session. We decorated wooden picture frames with the residents to hold their pictures which the staff had taken previously. It went rather well. My kids are the only ‘not little’ kids, and were able to help out a bit. They have certain residents that they’ve come to know over the past two years, and I was pleased to see dialogue and real affection . Whenever an opportunity like this comes up I make efforts to participate. The kids expect to be doing things out of their ‘comfort’ zone with regularity, and they also realize that our family doesn’t measure inconvenience very highly against service. Hopefully, this will stick with them.

Anyone else having ‘clutter’ issues?

Robin at Heart of Wisdom has a great posting on organizing the house.  I’m definitely going to need this one!

Getting Rid Of Fridge Clutter

Is your definition of leftover something you put in the refrigerator until it turns green? Ewwww. The official title is UFO (unidentified fridge objects). Do you have to cram the milk back in or move 5 bottles and 3 containers to put in a new item? Have you ever found an expired item that had never been opened? Do you triple stack? Do you have to rush to shut the door before things fall out?….

Its always a struggle here to keep chaos at bay! When company is coming (even if its ‘just’ the boys!) its a good incentive for an extra push!

We try to save our celebrating for the actual ‘event’, so we don’t really decorate until the last week of Advent. The next week will be full of baking and crafting and practicing our carols. My DH does the major portion of Christmas ’shopping’ and wrapping. I help the kids with their ’secret Santa’ ventures (eight kids means they pull names!) and take care of all entertainment and food. It works for us! This year I’m hoping for a real tree (not that easy to maintain in theis weather!) and a new Nativity set.

Next Monday we are hosting a ‘cookies and crafts’ afternoon for some ‘kids we know’ – I think there’ll be about 20 kids (not counting mine) and some Moms. We keep it simple by baking the cookies ahead, and setting out a ‘decorating’ table. One of the little girls is allergic to dairy, so her Grandma is bringing her own cookies, and I’m trying to find a decent icing recipe without butter.

Monday evening is the ‘teen’ night.(16+) Since the three kids hosting it have some overlapping friends there should be about 30 . I’m not sure they’ve planned it well enough, but I’m leaving it up to them….except for house rules, which their friends are already familiar with. My experience tells me that if there is food and music, everyone will be happy!

Then….Christmas! My favourite part is Christmas eve/Christmas day services. We really try to make Christ the centre of our celebration, and we maintain a fair degree of ’self’ control and decorum on Christmas Day. I love it! I look around at my happy , wholesome family and I cannot be more grateful for God’s blessings, for Christ’s sacrifice, and Mary’s ‘Yes’.

I see Christian living in my living room!

The St. Nicholas Center has some wonderful information on …Saint Nicholas! My children look forward to his special day (Dec 6) and the stories about this holy bishop.

Quite a few countries around the world celebrate Dec. 6 especially. Here’s a bit about the Netherlands:

In mid-November Dutch television broadcasts the official arrival of St. Nicholas and his helper Zwarte Piet live to the nation. Coming by steamer from Spain, each year they dock in the harbor of a different city or village. Wearing traditional bishop’s robes, Sinterklaas rides into town on a white horse to be greeted by the mayor. A motorcade and a brass band begin a great parade which leads Sinterklaas and his Piets through the town. Nearly every city and village has its own Sinterklaas parade.

In the following weeks before St. Nicholas Day, December 6, Sinterklaas goes about the country to determine if the children have been well-behaved. He and his Zwarte Piet helpers visit children in schools, hospitals, department stores, and even at home. The bakeries are busy making speculaas molded spice cookies of the saint. During this time children put out their shoes with wish-lists and a carrot or hay, or maybe a saucer of water, for the horse. When St. Nicholas happens by, the next morning children may find chocolate coins or initial letter, candy treats, pepernoten, and little gifts in their shoes. Everyone hopes for sweets, not coal or a little bag of salt.